US, Russia condemn latest North Korea nuclear test

The U.S. and Russia led global condemnation of North Korea Friday, after the reclusive state said it had completed a fifth nuclear test.

Speaking in Geneva ahead of talks on Syria, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated the nuclear test carried out in the early hours of Friday would be referred to the Security Council.

Kerry said that the topic will be discussed within "the context of the United Nations," according to Reuters.

Previous U.N. Security Council resolutions had banned North Korea from trialling new ballistic missiles, or carrying out nuclear testing. Lavrov said Friday that U.N. resolutions "must be followed."

South Korea's President Park Geun-hye called the test an act of "self-destruction" while Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would "protest adamantly" to Pyongyang, according to the BBC.

"France vigorously condemns the new nuclear test that was conducted last night by North Korea and calls [on] the U.N. Security Council to take up this violation of its resolutions," the French presidency said in its own statement.

North Korean TV aired a special broadcast at 13:00 local time Friday, or 05:30 CET, to announce its fifth nuclear test, according to AFP. Veteran newsreader Ri Chun-Hee was deployed to tell viewers on KCTV that the country’s military would now be able to launch strikes at a "higher level."